AS WARRIORS LAY LEBANON LOW, THE RED CROSS IS STANDING TALL

Marilyn Raschka, Chicago TribuneCHICAGO TRIBUNE

''Sacrifice Beyond the Call of Duty'' is more of a challenge than a motto for the first aid teams of the Lebanese Red Cross. Eleven volunteers have been killed, 80 wounded and six rendered handicapped since the beginning of the Lebanese conflict in 1975.

The agency`s backup motto, ''Try Diplomacy,'' is an equally difficult challenge in a country where 26 different militias and political groups vie with each other across territorial lines more fiercely guarded than Lebanon`s international borders.

In 1984 the Lebanese Red Cross initiated a program to acquaint militiamen with their services and principles. ''We realized they didn`t know what the Lebanese Red Cross was,'' explained Dimyanos Kattar, former director of first aid teams. ''They were afraid under stress, or lost control when they saw the flashing lights of our ambulances speeding towards them.''

Some 10,000 militiamen have gone through the program and the Red Cross says the exposure has helped gain their trust.

Trust and diplomacy have also been important in the last two months of savage artillery duels across Beirut. With people sheltering together in staircases and basements, a single shell can cause numerous injuries.

Hysterical family members often plead that their child or spouse be treated first. The team leader deals with the family as diplomatically as he can, explaining the necessity of priority.

The Red Cross gets about 3,000 applicants a year, but only 300 survive the 76 hours of training and testing followed by two days of mock emergencies and a three-month probation period. Those who complete the course join the 1,400 first aiders who serve throughout Lebanon.

Seventeen is the minimum age. Neutrality is must. A volunteer must be willing to go anywhere in Lebanon and cross any and all sectarian lines.

In the last two months, first aiders in the Beirut centers have had their mettle tested.

''You`ve got to have guts to do this,'' said Alexandra Daher, 20, a university student who went to aid the victims of the first round of shelling on March 14. ''It was horrible. That was my first rescue mission and I was shocked.'' The shelling caught people driving to work or taking their children to school. A number of people died in their cars.

One volunteer tells how she had to put a victim`s severed hand in a plastic bag and then on ice as they sped him to a hospital.

Another volunteer related a rescue mission three weeks ago in which a shell cut a man in two.

The standard four-member team has been reduced to three during these weeks of shelling to limit the casualites in case a shell hits an ambulance.

All of the volunteers in the Beirut area have experienced shells landing just yards away.

Why would anyone join the Red Cross?

Daher and two other volunteers, Hassan Kabbani and Dalal Hassoura, gave roughly the same answer: ''In Lebanon there isn`t much to choose from. You can stay home, join a militia, or get involved with the Red Cross and help people.''

Kattar explains the volunteers` enthusiam in terms of Red Cross ideals and sense of mission. But above all, the appeal is the freedom from the sectarian sickness of the country.

''Working with the Lebanese Red Cross no one is going to ask you your religious affiliation,'' he said. Red Cross identification cards, unlike government-issued identity papers, do not state whether a person is a Moslem or Christian.

Sara Jane Arida, 21, her family`s only daughter, had to fight with her family before they would like her join the Red Cross.

''I am Lebanese and I felt useless watching what was happening,'' she said. ''I wanted to do something to help unite the country.''

The volunteers have not only the Red Cross ideals as a standard, but also the model of the organization`s president, Alexandra Issa el-Khoury. Nearly 80, she has served as president since 1964.

Every morning she crosses the Green Line between the Moslem and Christian sectors to tend to her duties. Not once during the recent artillery barrages did she stay home under cover. ''I have a job to do,'' she says by way of explanation.

Red Cross officials agree that these last two months have been the hardest in the 14 years of civil strife.

''Other times we knew where the fighting was. We could make contacts with the groups and arrange to go in and evacuate the wounded,'' said Walid Kebbe, the organization`s public relations officer.

This time, however, widespread random shelling has forced the rescue teams to rely on their ears and intuition.

First aiders wear bright orange uniforms with the Red Cross emblem showing back and front. To protect themselves from shrapnel they wear helmets and American-standard bulletproof vests.

The combination of intuition, superb training and good equipment has worked well. No first aiders have been killed or wounded in the last two months of rescue missions.